BRITISH BORNEO. 23 
A fine was imposed and paid for the murder of the Sarawak 
Dyaks, and the heads delivered upto Mr. A. H. EVERETT, the 
Resident of the new district, who'thus found his little launch 
on one occasion decorated in an unusual manner with these 
ghastly trophies, which were, | believe, forwarded to the 
sorrowing relatives at home. 
In addition to these levies of warriors expert in jungle fight- 
ing, on which the Government can always count, the Raja 
has a small standing army known as the “Sarawak Rangers,” 
recruited from excellent material—the natives of the country— 
under European Officers, armed with breech-loading rifles, 
and numbering two hundred and fifty or three hundred men. 
There is, in addition, a small Police Force, likewise composed of 
natives, as also are the crews of the small-steamers and 
launches which form the Sarawak Navy. With the exception, 
therefore, of the European Officers, there is no foreign element 
in the military, naval and civil forces of the State, and the 
peace of the people is kept by the people themselves, a state 
of things which makes for the stability and popularity of the 
Government, besides enabling it to provide for the defence of 
the country and the preservation of internal order at a lower 
relative cost than probably any other Asiatic country the Gov- 
ernment of which is in the hand of Europeans. Sir JAMES 
BROOKE did not marry, and died in 1868, having appointed as 
his successor the present Raja CHARLES JOHNSON, who has 
taken the name of BROOKE, and has proclaimed his eldest son, a 
youth of sixteen, heir apparent, with the title of Raja Muda. 
The form of Government is that of an absolute monarchy, 
but the Raja is assisted by a Supreme Council composed of 
two European officials and four natives nominated by himself. 
There is also a General Council of some fifty members, which is 
not usually convened more frequently than once in two or three 
years. For administrative purposes, the country is divided 
into Divisions, each under a European Resident with European 
and Native Assistants. The Resident administers justice, and 
is responsible for the collection of the Revenue and the pre- 
servation of order in the district, reporting direct to the Raya. 
Salaries are on an equitable scale, and the regulations for leave 
and pension on retirement are conceived in a liberal spirit. 
